LIMITS ON 3-POINT CORRELATIONS IN THE COBE DMR 1ST-YEAR ANISOTROPY MAPS

We compute the three-point temperature correlation function of the COB E Differential Microwave Radiometer (DMR) first-year sky maps to searc h for non-Gaussian temperature fluctuations. The level of fluctuations seen in the computed correlation function are too large to be attribu table solely to instrument noise. However the fluctuations are consist ent with the level expected to result from a superposition of instrume nt noise and sky signal arising from a Gaussian power-law model of ini tial fluctuations, with a quadrupole normalized amplitude of 17 muK an d a power-law spectral index n = 1. We place limits on the amplitude o f intrinsic three-point correlations with a variety of predicted funct ional forms.